Surprising content (wall of text)

[Leviticus_Tribe]

I am impressed, to say the least, with some of the not so recent, and very recent, developments in game with character development and interestingly human traits these otherwise computer like people the main players of the story were up till this point

 

To preface, yes, i know about the old memes and whatnot of people really enjoying several characters because of the silliness of the 'character' and dont think i dont applaud such concepts as well. The fact that they dont mind making a character outright silly is definitely commendable, as it shows a level of humor, even in the most serious of settings as per warframe. However, this is just about the more serious settings, that they actually seem to hit in a serious way, without making it seem trite or ham fisted, and it is these that i wish to show

 

It first occurred to me that the characters were developing a bit more when the 'civilians harvesting infested' (i have a bad memory for names, if someone could edit this before i do somehow, i wouldn't mind the names being inserted) questline came out, civilians still being an odd term, as most of them can instantly use any sidearm i hand them, sometimes to a ridiculously higher level than the warframe in question could ever achieve. The sonicor, being my main example, as i never intended it to deal damage, but make room for the person firing it, so i added fire rate, and, while at the time this might have been patched, it fired quickly, but not near to the machine gun level of the 'civilian' who could almost pour out a steady stream of the shots before having to reload due to magazine constraints. this is something 'I' cant make happen, though, again it has been a while, perhaps it was patched. Nevertheless i say this to point out that, while yes, i love the story so far, but nothing is perfect (im wondering where the actual line of 'civilian' is drawn to showcase story elements. Its hard to state that they need help, when they are much more accurate than i ever will be, instantly, from across the map with a decent sidearm. in vast numbers these people could sweep the galaxy clean of anything that stood in their way)

 

Back to the point, during this questline, you are tasked with defending and helping find the little girl that was stolen. When the perrin sequence (hey, i remembered one) leader starts talking directly with the lotus when she suddenly states that we must save the little girl, 'and' cure her of the disease, to which he responds that such a thing would ruin their way of life, being unable to harvest infested in the same quantity as before, causing their entire economy to collapse and must move elsewhere to live. He then states that being a powerful outsider doesnt make one 'responsible' for fixing everyone else's problems. A very interesting notion, paraphrased, and probably mis-quoted slightly, but still interesting. Its a very human thing to want to help, and the lotus is showing signs of a 'Motherly instinct,' a want to protect her children, but not actually having children, projecting her want for them onto the tenno, and then subsequently anyone she 'could' help that aren't in direct conflict with anyone in particular, choosing to be mostly neutral, grineer aside.

This intrigued me. The lotus showed a deeper character flaw, that made perfect sense for her character, and the perrin sequence leader showed an equally interesting point, and then his own character, in a counter point to her thoughts. Neither were overdone, simply left to the player to see, and decide the outcome at the end on their own. Also an interesting point, we were given the option of Curing, giving the girl the option, or simply sending back. I personally chose the middle option, letting the girl decide, because it paralleled the tenno and their plight, having never truly been given a choice. not even really by the lotus. A bunch of underage school children with godlike destructive capabilities just, being let loose back into the public? probably not the best idea, but we then became weapons of destruction anyways, just not for the evil people, but for a "neutral" party who hires them out to the same people, just at a much slower rate, and at the price of refusal, if they dont want to actually do the mission. I gave the girl a 'choice' an actual one, that had long reaching repercussions, but i allowed 'her' to make that decision, so that later, it could be used as a point of strength, rather than the warframe deciding that they should do this or that, and the girl eventually resenting the warframe for making the decision for her.

What a thought process for such a simple game up to this point.

Fast forward to cetus, the next time i saw something interesting in this department - Konzu himself

Konzu had been this elderly gentleman who was always happy, the kind of happy that you get when someone decides they will be happy, despite the circumstances, because life is to short to live in misery. Everything he says is somewhat joking, but has a serious overtone because he isn't a stupid man, and he strikes me as a deeper character.

Then the infested hit

Konzu tells of the time he heard about the infested, and what happened in his life pertaining to them. He hits a chilling, spine tingling monotone as opposed to his chipper voice, signaling that this mental scar runs very deep. He almost rolls into PTSD territory when recounting the story, just about folding in on himself trying to tell it. He doesn't sugar coat anything, nor does he try to overplay anything, he simply states what happened, with an almost dead expression and voice., recounting how now his uncles voice rings out through the cosmos from that ship. a voice he knows full well, was used specifically to creep out anyone who heard it, telling of death to all.

he then immediately pops back into his chipper tone, a somewhat funny sudden shift at first, but then, i feel, its his own psyche trying to bury that horrid memory by crushing it with a happy, chipper attitude, as there isnt anything he can do about it, and dwelling on it would only drive him insane.

somber to say the least, in the middle of this murder fest of a game, that plays it all off in a very silly way up to points like this.

Now we are at the lotus being gone for some reason, a somewhat unexplained reason, but still, from out knowledge of ourselves, we can ascertain a lot from the scene, but that is for others.

I like the fact that they left us with a bit of her, and just took her away, with someone who we have very little knowledge about, and now have quite the face to place with the name. It didnt try to overplay (to much) it all, it just showed us what was happening, and left us to our own devices. Also showing our characters being suddenly thrown into deep water, and not being sure of how that is supposed to work, scared, and alone now, we pick up her hat, and place it in our main comfort room, to look and and worry over, for however long it will take to get the questline itself.

This is so very interesting to me, as character development is happening, and actual interesting character development, not ham fisted attempts to make people human, but actual efforts to make them seem legitimate

This i applaud, and wish more story elements would be added to the game. Like the mission where we fought the infested in corridors that were pitch black without our warframes flashlight. Those were awesome and creepy, having infested, at their running speeds, suddenly be upon us because our flashlight only extended so far, and not around corners. stuff like this is so fun to play and watch and see. and they look like they have decided to go in the direction of this cool story element of character development, rather than simply making us fight more wars for the sake of shoot em up bangy bangy fun

 

take this with a grain of salt though, as they aren't above suddenly screwing it all up, (looking at you subnautica) no one is perfect, but i hope that this does what its showing it will do, because i for one would recommend this game based on its 'story' elements if it keeps this up, rather than its fun gunplay, which should be a surprise unto itself

 

That is still my opinion though, and thoughts and questions should be discussed, as this, in again, my opinion, is deserving of the discussion

 

Your resident Red Rhino enthusiast (please make him a bit more vieable in endgame content) Leviticus_Tribe

[RagingGrizzly]

25 minutes ago, Leviticus_Tribe said:

Your resident Red Rhino enthusiast (please make him a bit more vieable in endgame content) Leviticus_Tribe

You had me till here.

[Leviticus_Tribe]

9 minutes ago, PUR3K1LL3R said:

You had me till here.

i can see that, he just doesnt perform as well as others, need damage? there are a few frames better at giving it, need defense? there are a few frames better at giving it, need CC? nearly any frame is better minus a few, i think a small revamp would be nice, as hes good, but mostly just farming good

[NeoHydra]

That's a lot of text indeed. But yeah, I also appreciate DE adding more subtility and depth to the events/quest/lore. Hope they'll keep on refining their writing.

By the way, the people from the Glast Gambit quest are called the Myconian ;)